3 ms·

The funny thing about being tied to a product/revenue at a megacorp, is that people can hold you accountable - in fact because hundreds of teams depend on your

by lumost 3y ago

The funny thing about being tied to a product/revenue at a megacorp, is that people can hold you accountable - in fact because hundreds of teams depend on your team's revenue to survive, you may be forced to work ungodly hours. On the other hand, you could go work on a team which is ... not tied to revenue, or even a product. Then your value is whatever you can convince others of, or you can simply be forgotten about as there is no way to tell whether you are doing your job. I've seen people spend 4+ years delivering not a thing in this manner while product focused teams work 80 hours a week. Which group would you choose to be in?

steveBK123 3y ago
The fact that GOOG has so many of the latter tells you something about the monopoly profit they get from the former.
121789 3y ago
The latter are often first in the chopping block and you’ll spend quite a bit of time trying to validate your own team’s existence. The aggressive product teams will probably have better career opportunities. Both paths are fine, it’s a trade off
- lumost 3y ago
  When the latter group gets big enough, they may command enough sway to ensure the opposite occurs at chopping time. There is no guarantee that a business optimizes for the correct metrics, that the business has any ability to influence those metrics, or that the metrics are even valid/optimized for. Anecdotal observation is that extremely successful businesses are often marvels of inefficiency as there is simply no need to make the business efficient. Efficiency is often contrary to employee goals as well. Making a successful and well run business is very difficult.
  - steveBK123 3y ago
    > When the latter group gets big enough, they may command enough sway to ensure the opposite occurs at chopping time. This is true. Metrics are really about who owns the narrative and who runs the org. If the latter group get their guy into power then decisions will be made that cause inefficiency, waste and even reduced revenue far longer than is logical.

by lumost 3y ago

steveBK123 3y ago

The fact that GOOG has so many of the latter tells you something about the monopoly profit they get from the former.

121789 3y ago

The latter are often first in the chopping block and you’ll spend quite a bit of time trying to validate your own team’s existence. The aggressive product teams will probably have better career opportunities. Both paths are fine, it’s a trade off

lumost 3y ago
When the latter group gets big enough, they may command enough sway to ensure the opposite occurs at chopping time. There is no guarantee that a business optimizes for the correct metrics, that the business has any ability to influence those metrics, or that the metrics are even valid/optimized for. Anecdotal observation is that extremely successful businesses are often marvels of inefficiency as there is simply no need to make the business efficient. Efficiency is often contrary to employee goals as well. Making a successful and well run business is very difficult.
- steveBK123 3y ago
  > When the latter group gets big enough, they may command enough sway to ensure the opposite occurs at chopping time. This is true. Metrics are really about who owns the narrative and who runs the org. If the latter group get their guy into power then decisions will be made that cause inefficiency, waste and even reduced revenue far longer than is logical.